Quotes of the day

posted at 11:00 pm on February 8, 2012 by Allahpundit

“After the returns came in, I asked Santorum spokesman Hogan Gidley what he thought about Rich Beeson’s message. Sure, Santorum did well on Tuesday, but doesn’t Romney have the money and infrastructure to outdistance Santorum, and everyone else, in the long run?

“‘No one had more money and infrastructure than Hillary Clinton, and hope and change wiped her off the map,’ Gidley continued. ‘We’ll have money, and we’ll have infrastructure, but our nominee has to have a message that people can get behind and inspires people.'”

***

“The Rick Santorum boomlet presents an interesting conundrum for Mitt Romney: It neutralizes the section of the GOP establishment otherwise known as the conservative commentriat.

“While the center-right media intelligentsia were more than happy to help destroy the ‘unserious’ candidates such as Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich (and others), they generally like Santorum. There are likely many reasons for this…

“At a time when Catholics (arguably the swing vote in America) are coming under fire by the White House, Santorum’s intelligence, faith, and ability to communicate effectively seem to be especially appealing attributes. My guess is these factors have converged to make Santorum just as appealing to conservative intellectuals as he is to blue collar ‘rust belt’ workers.

“It’s also worth thinking about the psychology behind last night’s vote. The turnout for Romney was pathetic, with particularly embarrassing results in Colorado and Minnesota, states where he prevailed over John McCain in 2008. But there’s a reason Romney would have won those states then and lost them now. In 2008, as in 2012, you had a frontrunner who, though he may face lingering opposition within the party, has achieved a strategic position of overwhelming superiority. People willing to accept Romney as the nominee didn’t have much incentive to turn out and vote on Tuesday; they understand that he’s basically a lock. The same held for McCain in 2008.

“The people with a greater incentive to vote on Tuesday were those with a high preference intensity, probably based around issues like abortion, or an extreme distaste for Romney. That vote was surely easier to capture, and Santorum did it. Sure, at some point, if a front runner looks strong enough, you’d expect holdouts to give up. But in this case, you’ve got a front runner who is an unusually bad fit for his party’s base, which keeps kicking at his shins. To put it another way: I’m not sure that Tuesday night told us anything we didn’t already know, either about Romney or the party.”

***

“The most generous interpretation of Tuesday night’s results is that Mr. Romney’s campaign failed to make much of an effort in the contests. He did not make many personal appearances in the states, nor did he run a significant amount of advertising. And his campaign worked to diminish expectations in the day or two before the voting — a practice that can annoy voters who are undecided in the race if they feel like they are being told their vote doesn’t matter.

“Why Mr. Romney’s campaign made these decisions is hard to say. One of the advantages of having a resource-rich campaign, as Mr. Romney does, is precisely that you are able to leave less to chance. Mr. Romney would have had the luxury of running commercials in Colorado or Minnesota, or of establishing a set of field offices in those states. Instead, his strategy was complacent. He gambled and paid the price, as Hillary Rodham Clinton did in the caucus states in 2008.

“Romney has more money, more national experience, more consultants, more staff. Heck, he even has better hair. His super PAC outspent Santorum’s by a 40-to-1 margin. Forty to one. And yet Mitt Romney lost. He lost to a guy who lost his home state by 18 points the last time he was on the ballot there. There’s a technical term in political consulting for a performance like that: it’s called sucking. If Romney can’t beat Rick Santorum, he needs to find another party to run in.”

***

“‘In this race, I’m the only guy that hasn’t spent time in Washington,’ he told reporters on an airport tarmac in Atlanta. ‘And Senator Santorum and Speaker Gingrich, they are the very Republicans who acted like Democrats. And when Republicans act like Democrats, they lose.'”

Gingrich leads in Oklahoma poll in good sign for Super Tuesday strategy

Flora Duh on February 9, 2012 at 12:02 AM

Thank you, there is some hope then.
Although I am quite comfortable that Santno. is the frontrunner now, let him take the arrows of Mittens for a while ,it is exhuating to worry and defend My first choice Gov. Perry and now Newt.
I just want this primary over.

They have been running the place for years with the help of guys like Romney is Mass. and Boehner in Washington DC so what is your point?

sharrukin on February 9, 2012 at 12:02 AM

well, let’s be real. 1. A President only has so much power 2. The Senate and House have lots of power 3. SCOTUS has lots of long term power

So what’s the point? I know it is in the nature of politics that people support/hate individual candidates. But really conservatives should be that last to get into a cult of personality with a candidate. The politic system is very complex (thank you, founders) and we (the people) need to reflect that complexity…and broaden our concerns to the congress as well as the Presidency

For example…would you rather have Romeny and an R senate…or barry and an R senate. I know which i’d prefer.

I’m afraid that the R party is not up to re-taking the Senate, so let’s look at another option. Barry and a D Senate and R House…or Romney and a D Senate and R House.

I’ll take B.

For all the caterwauling about Romney…here’s what he will not do. Take the contraception business. Obama wants this fight. First he’ll set up Boxer et al. to sing the high praises of a woman’s right to this and that.

Obama will temporize for a while…the aw shucks game. Then reluctantly go to the ‘middle’ in that the Church has to have little in-house training sessions on how to use the day after pill

Some middle…huh? That’s not Romney….so we’re way ahead.

For better or worse, I don’t think Santorum can be elected..and newt can’t either

I LOVE how the lib types ascribe human emotions to animals. IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!!!

WryTrvllr on February 9, 2012 at 12:26 AM

Nah-the mistaken identity is true.-especially in the case of white shark attacks on divers/surfers.

All these people in the water and there’s maybe 40 attacks WORLDWIDE and of those a handful are fatal. If sharks wanted to eat people-there would be a lot more fatal attacks.
*Sharks have been my hobby since pre-school. I know my stuff. Evil laugh*

Romney is finished. He is tanking on InTrade, to a level not seen in months. Just 2 days ago, he was a 98% favorite to win the nomination. Of course, he was also a 98% favorite to win CO, so any InTrade number is already wildly overestimating Romney’s chances.

Now that the Titanic is inevitably sinking, it will be funny to see when all the rats jump ship. Most notably clowns like Coultergeist, but also the braintrust @ the NRO editorial board and others. It won’t be pretty.

He will not unite the factions. If he’d had it in him, it would have happened already.

Schadenfreude on February 9, 2012 at 12:10 AM

Interesting point, as Romney has spent his entire campaign purposely dividing the factions on the right anyway. He’s actually caused a lot of animus between us who must unite to defeat Obama, and his ardent followers have done little but exacerbate Romney’s image as a nasty bast*rd of a politician & campaigner.

He’s got to run one helluva a dual-front campaign, one massive campaign to unite the Tea Party base (currently keeping our powder dry), and the other, nasty campaign against Obama to evict him and his entire psycopathic administration from our house. I just have my doubts that Romney can ever do this.

Then again, all this talk will be a distant irrelevant memory fragment once things get hot in the ME, and sadly they will get hot and nasty, before Nov 2012. Does InTrade have a bet on whether we will have elections this year?

Now that the Titanic is inevitably sinking, it will be funny to see when all the rats jump ship. Most notably clowns like Coultergeist, but also the braintrust @ the NRO editorial board and others. It won’t be pretty.

I’m sorry, every time I read about an attack it’s a surfer, and once in a blue moon someone who swam pretty far out.

Igor R. on February 9, 2012 at 12:32 AM

About 10 year ago a women went swimming with sea lions…off of the RED TRIANGLE…and went missing.
They found a bitten swimfin. She had been clad in a dark wetsuit.
The response on the pro-shark ‘boards was immediate. It was something along the lines of…if you don’t want to get attacked…don’t dress as a hot lunch.

Nah-the mistaken identity is true.-especially in the case of white shark attacks on divers/surfers.

All these people in the water and there’s maybe 40 attacks WORLDWIDE and of those a handful are fatal. If sharks wanted to eat people-there would be a lot more fatal attacks.
*Sharks have been my hobby since pre-school. I know my stuff. Evil laugh*

annoyinglittletwerp on February 9, 2012 at 12:33 AM

Great whites were designed to attack from below, hence the surfer-dudes. Not true for the bulls, tigers (think USS Iowa), makos, thrashers, etc.

Well he’s giving his speech at CPAC tomorrow. Here’s hoping he brings the house down.

gophergirl on February 8, 2012 at 11:20 PM

Reports are that NO SOMOS RUBIOS, Occupy D.C. and the New Black Panthers are planning to cause trouble at CPAC. Someone in my Twitter stream said her friend has a flyer in which the AFL/CIO is offering $12 an hour to people who will demonstrate there.

I’ve been following the #CPAC tweets for a while. Add in the lefty punks who just want to get in on the action, and it looks like CPAC could get real ugly in the next couple of days. I sure hope they have lots of security on the ready.

Well he’s giving his speech at CPAC tomorrow. Here’s hoping he brings the house down.

gophergirl on February 8, 2012 at 11:20 PM

Reports are that NO SOMOS RUBIOS, Occupy D.C. and the New Black Panthers are planning to cause trouble at CPAC. Someone in my Twitter stream said her friend has a flyer in which the AFL/CIO is offering $12 an hour to people who will demonstrate there.

I’ve been following the #CPAC tweets for a while. Add in the lefty punks who just want to get in on the action, and it looks like CPAC could get real ugly in the next couple of days. I sure hope they have lots of security on the ready.

About 10 year ago a women went swimming with sea lions…off of the RED TRIANGLE…and went missing.
They found a bitten swimfin. She had been clad in a dark wetsuit.
The response on the pro-shark ‘boards was immediate. It was something along the lines of…if you don’t want to get attacked…don’t dress as a hot lunch.

annoyinglittletwerp on February 9, 2012 at 12:38 AM

Gotta love the liberal-speak (not accusing you ALT). Read a paper few years back saying it was natural for women to be prostitutes, because they found a genus of monkey that did that sort of thing. Funny how the libs never bring up hyenas.

For example…would you rather have Romeny and an R senate…or barry and an R senate. I know which i’d prefer.

Obama and a Republican senate.

Romney with a Republican senate could get his progressive agenda enacted while Obama gets more of his blocked due to partisan politics.

I’m afraid that the R party is not up to re-taking the Senate, so let’s look at another option. Barry and a D Senate and R House…or Romney and a D Senate and R House.

I’ll take B.

The Democrats would go along with Romney’s progressive agenda like they did in Mass. and we would see liberal Mitt in full flourish. The Republicans would go along with him in this situation as well.

Obama would be a better bet.

For all the caterwauling about Romney…here’s what he will not do. Take the contraception business. Obama wants this fight. First he’ll set up Boxer et al. to sing the high praises of a woman’s right to this and that.

Obama will temporize for a while…the aw shucks game. Then reluctantly go to the ‘middle’ in that the Church has to have little in-house training sessions on how to use the day after pill

Some middle…huh? That’s not Romney….so we’re way ahead.

r keller on February 9, 2012 at 12:31 AM

So Romney would go with providing abortions with Romneycare but gosh, gee, jolly he wouldn’t go along with forcing the Catholic church to distribute contraceptives?

“Roman Catholic and other private hospitals in the state will be forced to offer emergency contraception to sexual assault victims under new state legislation, regardless of the hospitals’ moral position on the issue.”

You’re welcome. I haven’t seen any reports, but I have a feeling there will be some Tea Party groups there also.

And I used to have my own political blog about 3 yrs ago. Had to let it go because it was making me sick, literally. My blood pressure couldn’t take it so my doctor *sternly urged* me to give it up. LOL

That’s one reason why although I may not always agree with their POV, I have great respect for those that do this for a living.

Why was it making you sick? Time pressure? The commenters? Maybe you could do one or two articles per week. I can tell you would be real good at it. Very informative. But if you are happier NOT doing it go with that. Glad you are here with us crazies. (:

Just so you folks know I think if Santorum becomes the nominee, his selection of VP will have to be left of him. I think Romney would be a good choice for VP. Everyone shoots it down, but won’t say why, so I’m sticking with it. Santorum/Romney 2012?

Romney created the first and only in the nation apolitical judicial nominating process of his own volition and is very proud of it. It accomplished removing Romney from any responsibility for the end results of his appointments, and allowed him to appoint more progressive judges to the bench than even democratic governors of the past had. Out of 36 appointments, only 9 were Republicans and even those were progressive. He created the process with an executive order, similar to how Kennedy unionized federal employees 50 years ago. Imagine what the courts of this nation would look like if Romney brings his own personal judicial nominating process to the federal executive branch. People argue the reason to kick Obama out of office is his judicial nominations. Well, Romney may do more harm than Obama ever could, and 50 years from today, people will be looking back, much like we do today at an executive order that transformed the nation for the worse enacted 50 years prior.

Flora
I’m glad I had the volume down. I like those folks. They do a great job at the funerals going up against the Westboro folks. When I was up the coast in Va. they were heading up to D.C. You should have seen them all. People everywhere on the overpasses greeting them partying flag waving folks. Miles long.

Dire can correct me on this, but I do believe it was all started when I commented that Calling Elvis had a remarkable guitar lick in the middle of the song that dropped you into the groove, and I linked to the youtube of the song, and after that, it was off to the races.

I’m sorry, I respect Ed’s opinion, but I just can’t go along with his endorsement of Santorum. The man is a phony, the worst sort of big government conservative, a symbol of Republicans who said “deficits don’t matter” and abandoned the cause of limited government.

Remember how we always said that in a choice between Democrat and Democrat-lite, the real thing always wins? Well, Santorum’s last campaign is proof of that.
His endorsement of Arlen Specter is bad enough, but his quotes about individual liberty being overrated were the tipping point. He thought he could betray conservatism by voting to extend the welfare state, and that he could be re-elected if he just relied on his social conservative credentials. That strategy backfired, and he lost his last election by 18 points.

If he is the nominee, someone is going to have to seriously convince me to go out and vote in November. I can muster more enthusiasm for a RINO like Romney than I can for a phony like Santorum.

Yeah, I don’t know. I want so badly to defeat Obama and to flip the Senate. But Rick Santorum can come off so angry-twerpish. That was my first blush of him, and if that’s my first blush, it’s going to be for others that aren’t political junkies like you and me. I like his message, I’m just not sure of the messenger. Maybe it’s going to require us waiting four years for a Paul Ryan or a Marco Rubio. I will dutifully pull the R on the lever, no matter who it is.

The Obama machine will steamroll a punk democrat like Santorum Willard Fillmoure Romneycare.

I fixed it for you.

Why go for Ken-Doll – a half-assed democrat gun grabber, eco-marxist, abortion-loving, socialized healthcare promoter when you can have a full on gun grabber, eco-marxist, abortion-loving, socialized healthcare promoter like King Barry Hussein Obama?

Given Ken “Hair” Romney’s past performance regarding judicial appointments, I can’t say he’d be someone I’d trust to put the next Clarence Thomas on the bench.

I agree 100%..I have pretty much ignored Santorum because I did not think he would be around too long..I was wrong..I think there are a lot of folks like you and me that are having the same thoughts..:)

I’m with you on the US leaning right. But I want to have a ticket that appeals to at least the center. I don’t what there to be any chance 0 gets it again. I’m willing to be a little more inclusive just to insure his removal. If I had my gathers I would have picked the staunchest Conservative in the country and run them. And felt good about it. But 0 has absolutely got to go. We have to broaden the appeal. The VP slot is a good place for that. It needs sometimes to be to the left of the nominee, sometimes to the right. But we just have to make sure we get enough people on board. I don’t think we get there without the moderates and Indies.

That’s amazing. The fact that Santorum won in St. Louis is hard to believe. Funny how things can change overnight too.

bluefox on February 9, 2012 at 12:43 AM

Yes it is funny. But not for poor csdeven who lies in grammy’s basement with an exploded head. Last seen boasting that Mittness numbers must necessarily go up from 25 to 30 to over 50% and beyond. As it was fond of reminding all that palin’s negative approval was 63%, yet ignores the fact that within the gop, Mittness negatives averaged 53% and positives averaged 25%. Here’s a tip, you can’t get to the general if 53% won’t vote for you in the primaries, Electability be damned. The only way the vaunted Indies can grip are in the open primaries.

Anyhoo, we’ll get a better sense of trending after super Tuesday, but I don’t think Mittness is going to like it. The elites sold us a big cow pattie as invincible, but he is vulnerable as all get out both in primaries and the general.

I would think they could choose a better location than D.C. Or if they insist on D.C., how about the W.H. lawn?, LOL

bluefox on February 9, 2012 at 1:14 AM

Speaking of the W.H. Have you noticed we only hear of “attacks” against it (pot shots at the windows, firebombs over the fence), when BHO’s approval rating drops sharply? And the attention given to them only lasts for a 24 hour news cycle. Hmm, just enough to garner sympathy perhaps?

I don’t know, maybe I’ve gotten much too cynical over the past 3.5 yrs, but I’m waiting to see what they’ll come up with next, now that he’s catching hell from both sides over the HHS & Super Pac positions he’s taken this week.

I’m glad I had the volume down. I like those folks. They do a great job at the funerals going up against the Westboro folks. When I was up the coast in Va. they were heading up to D.C. You should have seen them all. People everywhere on the overpasses greeting them partying flag waving folks. Miles long.

Bmore on February 9, 2012 at 1:18 AM

I’d love to have seen it. I’m sure it was awesome.

Almost forgot to mention, the gilled one didn’t think to highly of my suggestion for Mitt as Ricks VP. Can’t for the life of me figure out why. Flora what music do you like?

Bmore on February 9, 2012 at 1:22 AM

Fortunately I’ve managed to steer clear of the panfish today.

As for my favorite music genres, I guess you could say I have an eclectic taste.